VUT in Brno rejects the objections of the Chamber regarding the competition for FaVU

Brno - The Brno University of Technology (VUT) has canceled the tender for the selection of a designer for the new building of the Faculty of Fine Arts. The contract was criticized by the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA), which deemed the competition to be irregular. According to the university's bursar, Vladimír Kotek, the reason for canceling the contract was that only one competition proposal remained in the competition. Kotek stated this to ČTK today.
    The Chamber had previously criticized, for example, the composition of the jury, claiming that there was not a majority of members with professional qualifications. "If someone submits a work they have created to a competition, they want the assurance that it will be evaluated by a jury composed of people who can assess the quality," said Petr Lešek, the first vice-chairman of the ČKA, regarding the cancellation of the competition.
    The university management has repeatedly rejected the Chamber's objections. "The design competition was completely correct, and the recurring statements from the ČKA about its irregularity are tendentious, as the VUT in Brno refused to incorporate provisions into the tender documentation that would demonstrably disadvantage the investor to the benefit of a potential winner of the design competition," Kotek told ČTK.
    The tender for the designers is valued at around half a million crowns. According to the Chamber, however, this reward should be higher, amounting to one to one and a half percent of the construction cost, which is about three million crowns. Therefore, the Chamber argued that the competition was irregular and that licensed architects should not participate.
    The school canceled the competition because only one offer remained in the tender. "This does not ensure a sufficiently competitive environment and competition for the contract," Kotek stated.
    The tender is also under consideration by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), which has been contacted by the Chamber. "It has not yet been determined whether there are grounds for potentially initiating administrative proceedings ex officio," stated the agency's spokesperson, Martin Švanda.
    The new building of the Faculty of Fine Arts is to be constructed by 2015 on the university campus in Brno under Palackého Hill. Half of the funding for the construction will come from the state budget, and the other half from the university's resources. The faculty is currently located in two locations in Brno. The new building is expected to cost around 300 million crowns.